In many hydrocarbon well applications, electric submersible pumping (ESP) systems are used for pumping of fluids, e.g. hydrocarbon-based fluids. For example, the ESP system may be used to pump oil from a downhole wellbore location to a surface collection location. Some ESP systems are deployed downhole into the wellbore by cable. However, cables used for deploying ESP systems tend to have poor resistance to well fluids and are susceptible to rapid gas decompression events.